Hangover
by emiliesimagination
Summary: how the morning after William's night out unfolds; featuring Noora, pancakes and a massive hangover


Sunday came with clear skies and a headache the size of five rounds of shots paid for by Chris. He rolled onto his stomach and padded the nightstand for his phone. In the darkened room the brightness of the display felt like a stab to his skull and he squeezed his eyes shut again. The pounding in his head kept at a steady pace and pulling one of the pillows over his ears only intensified the sensation. His mouth tasted like a badly mixed cocktail of vodka, gin and the lingering stench of cigarets. In conclusion, he felt like a piece of shit and the thought of doing school work, which he had delayed until the last weekend, made him want to curl up in bed and stay there for at least another 12 hours.

He let his heart rate calm down before he attempted sitting up and risking another glimpse at his phone to look at the time - ten past eleven. He ran his hands through his hair, getting rid of the worst of the tangles and deciding that he was in dire need of a mirror and a toothbrush. And he must have really been out of it because it was only when he pressed his head against the pillow in one last attempt of blocking out his hangover that he finally noticed the familiar note of lavender. Dumbstruck, he inspected the other side of his bed and although it was subtle, there was a slight indentation in the mattress. It made sense now, she must have closed the blinds and been the one to plug in his now fully charged phone either last night or after she woke up.

On that thought, he jumped out of bed - if you could call stumbling onto one's feet jumping - and the sudden flight of panic carried him down the corridor and toward the main living room. His mind was already flashing back to the first time she had slept over at his apartment and fled without so much as a note the next morning. The fact that he was not entirely sure how she had ended up in his bed in the first place did nothing to calm the rising sensation of dread in his stomach. He might have done or said something incredibly stupid.

Thankfully, that particular train of thought did not continue because when he stepped into the kitchen there she was, bent over the opposite counter scooping flour into a measuring cup. She had twisted her wet hair into a bun and he recognized the t-shirt that clung to her hips as one of his. He slumped against the door frame and traced her movements while she mixed the flour and milk. Now that the pounding in his head had receded he was left with a sensation of numbness that gave this whole experience a surrealistic touch. Noora was actually here, preparing pancakes in his kitchen and humming a tune he could not place at that moment. He would have most likely remained like that for longer, had Noora not turned around with the mixing bowl in her hands, ready to start pouring the batter into the pan.

Her eyes widening slightly and she stopped mid-motion, almost as if she had forgotten she was not alone. And for a moment, William felt the panic reignite before her open mouth curved upwards and she crooked her head to side.

"Good morning," Noora tugged at her bottom lip and he felt his head spin.

"You're still here."

"Yes," she said matter of factly and moved to set the bowl down next to the stove top.

Deciding not to push his luck with whatever stupid thing he would come up with next he pushed off of the door frame and joined her at the counter. Noora turned to face him and obliged a little peck before pressing a firm palm to his chest.

"You definitely need a toothbrush," she tapped the glass and packet of Aspirin next to her on the counter. "And this."

He dissolved the Aspirin in as little water as he could manage and drowned the whole thing in one go. His face must have shown his disgust before he could fill the glass with more water to wash away the vile taste because Noora giggled and gave his cheek a pinch. He chuckled and despite her protests pulled her into an embrace to kiss both her temples. "Thank you for this."

"Well, you still had flour and one carton of unexpired milk. So yeah, I had to take advantage of that, especially since Eskild hasn't gotten groceries since Wednesday and the shops are closed until tomorrow. So not that selfless, really."

"Still, this is really nice."

"But," she angled her head away from him. „You'll only get some if you go take care of this," her fingers pushed along his jawline and into his hair „situation first."

He leaned his forehead against her collarbone with a muffled groan. Defying his expectations she did not smell like her usual lavender body mist but the much darker sent of his own body wash. He liked that smell on her, he decided. But when he nuzzled his nose deeper Noora squealed and pushed him away before he could attempt to put another kiss on her exposed neck. "I said toothbrush."

The tiles in the bathroom were coated with water drops and the humid air clung to every surface and his skin. Noora could not have been up for long as the mirror was misted over and he grabbed a towel to get a better look at his reflection. He supposed it could be worse, his skin creased around his eyes but the dark circles should be reversible with some moisturizer and hydration. In his haste to get to bed yesterday he had not bothered to brush through his hair before showering and now the longer strands had tangled into a sizable knot in the front. He grabbed his toothbrush from next to where the one, he had given Noora to use a week ago, lay and went to work.

Now that his mouth tasted more like peppermint than cigarets and his hair had conformed to an acceptable shape he threw on a fresh hoodie and checked his phone. There were no unread messages and only two new emails with his Uber receipts. He pushed it into his hoodie's front pocket and joined Noora in the kitchen. She had turned up the radio to the morning program and flipped the last pancake over in the pan.

"Feeling better?" she added the thin piece to the stack of already cooked pancakes and flicked off the stove.

"After a kiss, I will," she raised her eyebrows but allowed him to press her up against the counter. His hands found her waist through the t-shirt and he moved to kiss her.

"Did you brush?" she tilted her head to the side.

"Of course," William took a deep breath in and breathed the resulting air into her face.

"Oh my god," her mouth dropped open and then quickly closed as she pushed away from him with a flash of laughter. "You're disgusting."

He took the plate of pancakes and the only jar of jam in his cupboard - strawberry - and joined her at the table. She had already set out the plates and a glass of orange juice for each of them.

They ate in relative silence except for her protests when he would reach to squeeze her thigh and she would swat him away with a playful smile. William was by no standard a slow eater but he had barely finished his first pancake when Noora was already spreading the jam and folding up her third one. She had strawberry marks in both corners of her mouth that strangely enough reminded him of her red lipsticks.

"Are you in a rush?"

"Huh," she looked up and darted her tongue out to clean the jam off her lips. "I just have to write the article that's due tomorrow. And I didn't even finish the introduction yesterday. So yeah, kinda."

His expression dropped and he swallowed the piece of pancake to cover of his disappointment. "You didn't have to stay you know."

"Well, you were so disappointed last time," he bit his lip.

"I didn't mean to pressure you into staying or anything," he said.

"It's not like that," she dropped her fork and gave him a smile. "I just didn't think it would have been smart to leave you alone last night."

"Come on, it wasn't that bad. I can remember most of it."

Now her smile had turned into a full-blown smirk. "So you do remember drooling onto your pillow?"

"I did not do that," he felt the heat turning the tips of his ears red and rearranged his hair accordingly. Most of last night had come back to him, but there were blurry spots left. He just had not expected to hear something like this.

"I mean, it was kind of cute," she was tugging at her lip again and twisting the sleeve around her wrist. "But I'm guessing, this not how you usually get girls into bed?"

He groaned and rubbed at his temples. „What else did I do?"

The crumbs and bits of jam left on his plate suddenly became very interesting. He knew Noora was enjoying this and he supposed he deserved that. He remembered driving home with her and getting into bed but god knows what else happened before and in between that.

"Well, for starters you drunk texted me," he scoffed and Noora only laughed and ticked each event off on her fingers. "Then I found you half passed out on my porch at like 2 am and you called an Uber. You showered and we went to bed."

"That's all? We didn't like, you know …," he trailed off not sure how to properly mold his concern into a question. He would not be able to forgive himself if he had fucked it all up after weeks of being so careful. She did not want to take whatever this was between them any further than making out in his bed and though he admittedly desired more of course, he would always respect her wishes. He loved cuddling with her, kissing her senseless and making her laugh. It gave him an odd sense of satisfaction.

"Oh umm, not really. You were out in seconds and yeah you drooled but I already told you that." Noora had pushed the sleeve of his shirt all the way up around her elbow and her complexion had turned from pale to light pink.

His chest deflated with relief and he pushed the last piece of folded pancake into his mouth. Noora took the plates and put them in the dishwasher together with the mixing bowl and measuring cups. Despite the Aspirin he still lagged behind in speed as he helped her clean up the kitchen and start the dishwasher. After making sure the surfaces were spotless Noora got her bag from the sofa and made to lace up her shoes.

"You're leaving?"

"The essay thing, remember. I sadly wasn't joking about that," she fiddled with her hair ties and pulled the knot on her head apart to let her still damp waves fall down past her chin.

"I mean I did offer to help you with it yesterday. I wasn't joking about that either."

"I'm serious William I need to finish this today."

"I am too. You can write it here, I have some work to do as well. So as long as you don't distract me I won't keep you from your work either."

"I didn't even bring my laptop or anything," her backpack already swung over one shoulder, Noora stared at him with that familiar look in eyes that could pass for annoyance. She was seriously debating his offer.

"You can use mine, for now, I won't need it until later. And then mail it yourself when you're done."

Noora stayed quiet and pushed her bottom lip in and out of her mouth.

"What's your assignment?"

"Heart rhythms."

"Okay, so my brother went through a couple of months was he was dead set on studying medicine. Because you know it's very prestigious to be a doctor and whatnot. Anyways, he bought a couple of books he never opened and they're still around here somewhere."

Noora considered him with narrowed eyes for a moment, probably deciding that this was way too elaborate to be a lie and finally lowered her backpack back down.

"Okay," she drew the word out and William wasn't sure if she was annoyed with him, herself or the situation in general.

"Great," he reached for his laptop on the coffee table and put it down next to her.

True to his own word, his brother kept a small collection of medical books in one of the half-empty storage cupboards. He surveyed the titles and picked out a 2014 edition human physiology textbook.

Noora had settled down on one end of the couch, encircled in an impressive amount of paper and markers she must have produced from her bag in the two minutes he had been gone. She was bent over a black and white copy of different EKGs and a heart diagram.

"So, you are staying then?" William dropped onto the couch next to her.

"I guess so. But you'll have to make me hot cocoa later," she looked up from her notes and he was relieved to find any traces of her prior annoyance wiped from her features.

"Of course."

He cupped her jaw and pushed his fingers into her loose hair before dipping down for a kiss. It made his chest swell with heat and his skin prickled with the excitement of having her all to himself for the rest of the day. Noora hummed against his lips and laced her hands around his neck to pull her body closer to his. In the end, she was only inches away from fully straddling his lap and the kiss had turned from innocent to something completely different in a matter of seconds.

One of his hands rested on her hips and the other had pushed his shirt halfway up her stomach before he pulled away with a painful groan. His own body protested when he gently disentangled himself from her and she came to rest on the couch next to him with an exasperated sigh.

„Why did you stop?" Noora combed through the mess he had made of her hair and wiped over her pink and slightly swollen lips.

„Because," he reached over for his laptop and typed in his password before handing it back to her. „We agreed on no distractions, and you," he gave her one last peck „are extremely distracting."

„Ass," she made a show of swatting away his hand, but ultimately did not protest when he pulled her legs across his lap and started to trace patterns against her bare skin.

He had never thought it possible that a Sunday filled with school work into the late evening hours could be this enjoyable.


End file.
